Fireworks - my night with Silvio

I do wish Alexander Chancellor had bothered to read what I actually said in my book about the visit Tony and I paid to Silvio Berlusconi's home in Sardinia in 2004, instead of basing his remarks on hoary old myths and an invented quotation of an interview I gave recently to an Italian newspaper (God gave Blair the strength to invade Iraq, G2, June 6).

According to Mr Chancellor, what I told the Italian journalist in relation to the visit was that it was "one of the most thrilling" of all my "freeloading holidays". In fact all I said was: "I have never spent an evening like the one I spent at Signor Berlusconi's house in Sardinia," an entirely different statement.

First, it was only "an evening" that we spent in Sardinia - less than 24 hours in fact. It was not a holiday. Our family holiday that year was in Tuscany, where we had left the children during the brief visit to Sardinia. There was a particular purpose in Tony agreeing to the visit at that time, having turned down every one of the many similar requests by the Italian prime minister over the years. Tony was hunting for IOC votes in the hope of London winning the bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012 and Italy was a key player in the IOC. He felt if there was any influence that Sgn Berlusconi could exert over the Italian IOC delegates, it would be worth it.

And I have never spent an evening like it. We were treated, among other things, to a major firework display, which ended with "Viva Tony" being emblazoned across the sky, and found ourselves taking part in a singalong accompanied by an orchestra which had been flown in for the occasion. Not the sort of evening either of us were anticipating. Cherie BlairLondon